Many people enjoy reading so much that they often take a book with them as they perform errands, travel, or the like. This permits them to read while they are waiting for buses, trains, doctor's appointments, or the like. If they take their book to work, they can read on their lunch hour, their coffee break, or the like.
However, when carrying a book in this manner, the book, not only gets in the way, especially if the person is carrying other packages or if the person happens to be on crutches, the book also tends to get lost, or simply left behind when the person sets it down to carry out other tasks. Furthermore, the book is often simply stuffed into a bag, carrying case, purse or the like, and thus tends to get damaged.
Accordingly, there have been several designs proposed for a combined book cover and book carrier, see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,523,129 and 4,036,417. While somewhat successful, covers of this type have several drawbacks which prevent them from achieving full commercial success. Principal among such drawbacks is the limited versatility of such devices. That is, they can only snugly accommodate a single book size. Since books come in a wide variety of sizes, most of the books carried in these known devices will be only loosely held, and will be susceptible to slipping and sliding about within the cover. This is an inconvenience at best, and could contribute to the damage or loss of a book at worst.
Still further, presently known devices are not amenable to being carried in a variety of ways, but only have handles. Thus, if the user has several packages, or is on crutches, these known book carriers are just another package, and might even be considered as being a nuisance.
Accordingly, there is a need for a combination book carrier and book cover that is adaptable to a wide variety of book sizes and carrying situations.